Puccini Tosca Santa Fe Opera, June 2012 Director Stephen Barlow Lighting Duane Schuler

Reviews 

A different slant on Tosca... In the first act, a massive dome inside the Church of Sant’ Adrea della Valle appears above the floor where the painter Cavaradossi works on his portrait of Mary Magdalene. Artistic liberty is taken here: the dome rests on its side for the full effect of looking up from the interior and the painting is not on a canvas but broadly fills the slightly raised church floor like a fresco... Brilliantly, in Act II, the floor flips over in the middle and becomes a huge Renaissance painting that forms the backdrop of Baron Scarpia’s office in Palazzo Farnese... In Act III, the floor is the prison wall that later becomes the rooftop of Castel Sant’Angelo... What makes this scene work beautifully are the huge cupolas of the neighboring church tilted skyward and looming above the prison, creating a sense of height for the dramatic suicide ending... an eye-popping set... this is a stellar production… (Examiner)

...9:22 pm: Amazing amazing amazing. 9:27 pm: Intermission thoughts: beautiful set, mind-blowing singers, fantastic venue, don’t piss off #Tosca. ... 10:37 pm: Cool domes!!!! ... 11:02 pm: Final thoughts: even if you think you hate opera, give it a chance… Especially at #SantaFeOpera. #Tosca was pretty f***ing fantastic... (An Aria of Tweets - Santa Fe Reporter)

... The resulting production, although studiously immersed in the artistic and architectural elements of the Italian Renaissance buildings in which the opera takes place,incorporates some surrealistic elements -in part to best utilize the open air Santa Fe Opera stage...

This is a great performance of “Tosca”, and I recommend, without reservation,that those able to secure tickets to its subsequent performances, do so. (operawarhorses.com)

Certain details of the sets were incredibly beautiful. And guess what? It was a period staging! How rare! I mean, a real period staging, including research to select specific details of the architecture of Palazzo Farnese, down to pinpointing Scarpia's room, as well as research to substantiate accurate period costumes. A refreshing event in this day and age of updates and Konzept productions. The solution of having the singers walk on a huge painting in act I was clever; Scarpia's office was appropriately oppressive with the painting looming over the singers; and the setting for act III was incredibly beautiful. (Opera Lively)

It’s a same-but-very-different concept – a literal interpretation of the Roman setting turned askew in an Escher-like vortex.

In the first and third acts, with their settings of human love and tragedy, walls or paintings serve as floors, and ceilings and domes hover as if waiting to fall over and strike Tosca and Cavaradossi into smithereens. In contrast, the central second act, which takes place in Scarpia’s apartments in the Palazzo Farnese, is in proper proportions and direction. The good gal and guy are thus surrounded by fractured reality, whereas the villain is firmly anchored by gravity. (SantaFe.com)

Visually Striking... (Stephen Barlow and designer Yannis Thavoris’s) new Santa Fe production hews to the traditional early 19th century, but otherwise displays a fresh, keenly intelligent take on Puccini’s shabby little shocker...

Thavoris serves up a clever new slant, literally, on the usual high scaffolding and large wall painting of Act 1. Cavaradossi’s fresco is a massive raked floor, on which the framing action takes place. The platform rises to form a back wall with huge Italian painting for Scarpia’s Palazzo Farnese lair, morphing into the Castel Sant’ Angelo rooftop in the final scene, with looming, irregular church domes adding to the sense of social and psychic disorder. (The Classical Review)

Yannis Thavoris's sets took elements of the real life locations ... and re-cast them in a spectacular and non-naturalistic manner.

For act 1, the portrait of the Magdalene was hugely over life-size and placed raked flat as an acting area. Behind it, outlined against the New Mexico sunset we looked at elements of the inside of the church's dome. A solution at once spectacular and wonderfully particular to the Santa Fe Opera house. (Planet Hugill)

Director Stephen Barlow and Designer Yannis Thavoris add imagination... Santa Fe’s “Tosca” enhances the company’s reputation for high concept design and direction, not to mention superb performances throughout. (The Durango Herald)

In every way, Santa Fe’s production was faithful to the vision of the theatrically-obsessed Puccini. Scenic and costume designer Yannis Thavoris gave us beautiful sets that often distorted what was up, down, left or right – an effective suggestion of Rome’s oppressive political climate in 1800. (ColoradoSprings.com)